Stephen Hillis joined the Lobo family in January 2025 and serves as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He came to UNM after a successful football career at the University of South Dakota and a seasons at Missouri Western State as a sports performance coach.
At MWSU, Hillis was the coach for women’s basketball, softball, tennis, and he assisted with football.
With UNM, Whitehead assists the program in all manners of strength and conditioning, with an emphasis on injury rehabilitation, nutrition, strength technique, and explosiveness.
Hillis played football at South Dakota from 2019 to 2023, where his strength and conditioning coach was the current UNM strength coach, Caleb Heim.
He originally signed with Air Force but he tore his ACL and did not play, eventually transferring to South Dakota.
A native of Hartington, Nebraska, Hillis played in 51 games and recorded 234 tackles, 7.5 sacks, and 15.0 TFLs. Additionally, he was twice named All-Missouri Valley, including first team in 2022. He was also a team captain.